New loss for government over wastewater plant tender

The Court of Final Appeal has confirmed that Sino-Belgium consortium Waterleau Group NV was wrongfully excluded from the tender for the operation of the wastewater treatment plant on the Macau peninsula. This is the latest in a string of court decisions against the government regarding the tender. In June 2010, the commission who opened the tender proposals said Waterleau lacked documents to prove it had at least 10 years experience in wastewater treatment, a decision the Court of Final Appeal now says was wrong. In mid-October, the Court of Final Appeal had already ruled against the government’s decision to exclude another company, Va Tech Wabag, from the tender. From a total of seven companies bidding in the tender, only two were accepted. A consortium composed of local company CESL Asia, Investimentos e Serviços, Portugal’s Indaqua, Indústria e Gestão de Águas and mainland’s Tsing Hua Tong Fang won the tender and has been operating the plant since October 1, although the contract has not yet been signed. There seems to be three options now on the table for the government: either it cancels the tender; it reopens the tender to accept Waterleau’s bid, as it did with Va Tech Wabag in November (Wabag is challenging this in the courts, saying the contract had in fact already been awarded by the time its proposal was accepted); or it compensates the wrongfully excluded companies.